


The Last Centurion/The Last Klyntarian

by archetypically, spacebrock



Series: Novenom [Yes Some Venom] [3]
Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Comics), Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Nova (Comics), Venom (Comics), Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Alternate Timelines, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-02
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-15 11:16:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29807586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/archetypically/pseuds/archetypically, https://archiveofourown.org/users/spacebrock/pseuds/spacebrock
Summary: What if Eddie Brock didn't stay on Earth after acquiring Venom? What if he acquired Venom during college and spent the rest of his life intergalactically on the run?And what if Richard Rider, Nova Centurion, was tasked with bringing the Last Klyntarian to heel?
Relationships: Eddie Brock/Richard Rider, Peter Quill/Richard Rider
Series: Novenom [Yes Some Venom] [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2147748
Kudos: 2





	The Last Centurion/The Last Klyntarian

**Dockrum VII was a lawless place.**

Ungoverned, unseen, formerly owned by the Builders, it sits untouched, now - deserted. After the Avengers set everyone free, there was no structure. Things dissolve without structure; people, like the scarcity that once was water, require it to survive.

Good thing not everything on the planet is people or rocks, though.

The debris of scattered civilization crunch under his boots as Eddie Brock makes his way across the hills through yet another upset - a sandy windstorm blistering from a dying atmosphere; the corrosive levels of nitrogen gnawing away at the bones of alien buildings. Where once there was life, now is only dust and ash. He tastes it as he moves, and wonders whether or not that’s the only food he’ll get today.

Like Prometheus of old, the beast he shares a skin with will devour his liver if he keeps them waiting too long. Beasts, he should say, now. With the destruction of Klyntar, everything now lives inside of him. And he is a planet unto himself, however small and insignificant his form.

The walk to and from provisions to shelter is a daunting one, but it’s one he’s made every day for the past fourteen weeks. He knows how long it’s been not due to the rising and setting of multiple suns or moons, but rather, due to the marks he’s left in the rancid clay outside his home. They’re a meaningless series of strikes; dashes and dots, morse for “yet another day” or “this too shall pass”. He doubts anything flying by looks down long enough to perceive the messages therein.

The only fragments of life that still maintain any sort of order here are the lizards. Eddie’s getting sick of reptile meat - or whatever it is they have on their little brittle bones - but he knows he doesn’t have much of a choice. Venom would eat a world if they could, but both of them lack the energy to try and do so. It’s just a matter of survival at this point.

The broadcast will be the same as it always is across the frequencies of static, the airwaves devoid of angels. 

No one is coming.

_ Good _ , Eddie thinks, reaching up to haul himself higher over the edge of a collapsed building. Sand and waste pour out of the windows, billowing away on the breeze.  _ That’s the plan.  _

_ Stay alone, stay alive. _

The Avengers aren’t coming back. The people of the planet aren’t due to return. Whatever got left behind usually succumbs to the uninhabitable terrain and atmosphere that hungrily dissolved whatever stayed long enough to linger; devoured by time and corrosion. 

**_Hungry, Eddie_ ** **.** _ I know you are, pal. _ They both were. 

And in some way, it’s a blessing. He hadn’t been particularly popular on Earth, even before the accidental rescue of one symbiote and an entire species. Space isn’t as welcoming, either, as he might’ve hoped, given who and what he is, but he makes do. He chases down problems and handles them, then retreats to his hideaway on the surface of a planet that doesn’t want him here, either. But he stays, because where the fuck else is he supposed to go?

He’s seen the warrants for his arrest. Every Ravager worth his bounty knows about the Last Klyntarian. He doesn’t have the heart to inform them via encryption that it’s a bit derivative of an old Terra film. They usually don’t get what he’s trying to say anyway, so why bother? 

Heaving a sigh as he finally makes the end of his climb to the surface above the valley-city, Eddie surveys the empty desert bluffs and drifts with the wind, letting the slightly-heavier gravity draw him onward toward home sweet home - a communications tower off in the distance, a needle against a sky the color of a haystack.

He tastes iron on the air and pauses. 

That’s new.

Blue eyes swing skyward over the coverings on his face, and Eddie wrenches them higher, starting off at a much faster pace, rushing in toward the signal placement in the distance. Venom clambers around inside of him, snapping and slavering uncertainly. Eddie can feel the buildup of their secretions in the back of his throat and makes every effort to ignore them. Now’s not the time to transform and oust himself.

Iron means disruption in the atmosphere, and disruption in the atmosphere can only mean one thing - 

_ Somebody’s coming _ .

_ Stay-alone-stay-alive-stay-alone-stay-alive-stay-alone-stay-alive _ is the rhythmic mantra under his heels as he bolts for the tower, his clothes consumed by the howling, whistling sand that begins to speed up. A ship is descending - black and terrible, splitting the atmosphere overhead like a shark protruding upside-down through the water.  _ Goin’ the wrong way _ , Eddie thinks wildly, and grabs the rungs of the tower to heave himself skyward, the scrape of rust against his half-covered palm hardly noticeable as the wound heals automatically.

He’s gotten so used to the pain he doesn’t really care what happens to him next.

He makes his way up into the tower and dives down low. Up here, life signals get distorted. They won’t be able to see him. Same if he went for the outcropping of uranium-rich caverns nearby, but he tries not to do that all too often. Feels weird on his skin. Venom likes it, though. They’re weird that way, sometimes.

**_Danger, Eddie_** **?** _Nothing we can’t handle, V._ They follow up with a low rumble of feline contentment; acknowledging the claim, and through the holes in the busted edge of the tower where it’s starting to come apart, they watch the ship touch down.

It’s an ugly black thing shaped like a misformed paper crane. The neck of it protrudes out strangely as the ship opens and lowers. Blue-skinned Kree surrounded by a thin, shimmering layer of protective materials stand on the exit and observe. They seem to be waiting for something, or someone. Their voices are hardly audible, but Eddie can make out “--dismal place--” “suitable for Brood” and some laughter. It quiets, however, when behind them, an Accuser appears.

Not just any Accuser, either, but one with weeping black markings. A man the size of a miniature mountain, his dark robes flowing around him, weapon in hand. Some sort of hammer; whatever it is that galvanizes the decisions of the Accused. Ronan, Eddie realizes. In the flesh, on an abandoned planet during a bitter war.  _ Why _ ?

It’s his voice that comes in clearest - a low knell of funereal indifference far too unsettling to be ignored. “ _ Where is the creature _ ?” Eddie hopes to fuck he’s not the creature.

Before anyone can answer him, however, the taste of iron and ozone blazes through the air again - quite literally blazes, as from on high, something drops, loosed as an arrow from a celestial bow - with a rocket’s force headed for the ground. 

He -  _ he! _ \- stops just short of that in a  _ rush  _ of golden-white light, the shimmering hue of which surrounds him even now, powered-up as he is. He’s in the royal blue and gold of the Nova Corps; the shining example of pristine glory from a so-called superior civilization. When he speaks, however - and that Eddie, too, hears clearly as the winds die down yards away - 

His voice instantly sounds like  _ home _ .

“ _ Ronan, this area’s off-limits following the agreement from last month’s abandoned planet talks _ ,” says the Nova man, and in his irritation, Eddie catches hints of that same sound that makes his heart tick in a homesick kind of way. “ _ I’m sure you remember. You were there. _ ”

“ _ Richard Rider, Nova Centurion, _ ” Ronan replies coolly, “ _ of course. _ ”

“ _ Then explain your reason for being here. I’m sure it’s a good one _ .” His helmet gleams in the suns. Eddie watches, mesmerized, as Ronan grinds his teeth and thinks up a lie.

“ _ We merely stopped to stretch our legs _ .”

“ _ Consider them stretched, _ ” says Richard Rider, Nova Centurion. “ _ There’s a moon a few meters away that might better suit. I think you’ll find the bar there to your liking. _ ”

“ _ We do not imbibe _ .”

“ _ Well, it was a low bar anyway _ ,” Richard says - and Eddie has to cover his mouth, suddenly, shocked into a soft chuckle that nearly breaks through to the surface. The Kree, being who and what they are, do not get the joke, and just as quickly retreat the way they came, with a near-silent purr of engines and a sleek ascension backwards into the sky. 

Apparently, Richard Rider, Nova Centurion, has some kind of weight he can throw around in the universe. He’d heard of him, of course, it’d be hard not to - Nova’s last Centurion. What were the odds?

Better, now that he’d come by, of course. But better still when he goes.

Eddie breathes a sigh of relief, sure the Nova will follow the ship, but - 

“ _ Worldmind, scan for remaining life _ .” Eddie’s heart drops, and, flattening himself in the signal-tower’s distorted waves, he waits for this other storm to blow over. Richard starts walking, slowly, across the surface of the planet, and Eddie hears as he strides away - 

“ _ We’ve got all night. _ ”

Well, he might, but  _ they  _ don’t. 

Eddie swallows, and, once Rich has flown across the nearest hill, he starts to  _ move _ .


End file.
